Online Shopping Due to Overtake In-Store Purchases this Holiday Season

According to Deloitte, for the first year ever, online spending is projected to account for more revenue than purchases made in brick-and-mortar stores.

This is something we’ve all seen coming, I’m sure. With the ease of e-commerce, combined with hassle-free delivery and online price matching…not to mention NOT having to rush out on Black Friday eve to grab a deal before the stores sell out…it was always only a matter of time before malls began to lose out to the internet when it comes to holiday shopping.

Online sales are forecast to exceed 107 billion this season, which is an increase of over 13% from previous years. Even more significantly, it’s being predicted that this will be the biggest and busiest Cyber Monday in history. Read that again: IN HISTORY.

With everything else going digital, it makes perfect sense that shoppers will prefer making their purchases via smartphone from the comfort of their sofas at home. According to Forbes, up to 60% of shoppers will be doing that very thing this year. While that is great news for companies like Amazon, and others whose mobile business practices have kept up with the rapidly-shifting times, it could be a sign for traditional stores in mall settings to start to panic.

There is something to be said, of course, for the adrenaline that is discovering those perfect deals and sales on Thanksgiving evening or the frosty early-morning hours of Black Friday. Many traditionalists may indeed choose to wait in line again this year, frantically trying to beat the crowds through the door, eagerly anticipating the savings to come. However, if the financial predictions come to pass, it will be a much smaller crowd than has done so in years past.

Where do you stand? Will you be buying with a single click, or physically out in the retail realm? Let us know your thoughts!